- Title: ENGLAND: Arrival of plane of Vietnamese "orphans" at Heathrow.
- Date: 1st April 1975
- Summary: 1. SV mean and women carrying crying Vietnamese babies along gangway in coach. 8 ft 2. SV men and women carrying babies wrapped in read blankets out of coach, one little girl walking. 15 ft 3. CV pan round crowd of people in airport room-children sitting at tables, on the floor or in arms. 19 ft 4. SV baby's chest being examined by doctor. 23 ft 5. SV shots children. 33 ft 6. MV David Enylls(?). 48 ft 7. MV reporter interviewing prospective parents at airport, pan to woman. 8. SV pan along coach zooming in one CUs small Vietnamese children looking out. 70 ft 9. SV babies carried into coach. 80 ft 10. SV children and helpers in coach travelling along. 85 ft 11. MV Mail editor. 99 ft 12. CU Mail editor. 113 13. MV Mail editor. 140 ft COM: "Midnight at Heathrow airport; 105 small Vietnamese children tired and bewildered by he long flight and the reception party. Not all the babies are possibly orphans. Some are suffering from scabies and many from malnutrition, one or two have been close to death.. ...Now they're off the plane, but should they have ever been on it in the 1st place? A question we put to David Enylls(?) of the Foreign Office." ENYLLS(?): Well, I don';t think 1st is. I think that if we were to do more of this and I hope that there won't be a massive airlift, I think the idea wold not be sound at all. I think it's perfectly alright to have a modest project like this but more than this I think would be very ill advised." REPORTER: "Why?" ENYLLS(?): "Well I think that some parents don't perhaps know what they're in for and technically I think it would be quite wrong to uproot children from their ordinary environment and to put them in an Western environment." REPORTER: "Why do you want a Vietnamese child?" WOMAN, "Why I specifically want a Vietnamese child. I got very involved when I used to sit and watch the television when the American war was on and I desperately wanted to help and I've got a happy family and I thought this was my way and four and a half years later my prayers answered." REPORTER: "How many children do you have of your own?" WOMAN: "I've got 5 of my own," COM: "2 hours later those who weren't taken to hospital were brought in buses to houses in Surrey now run as Vietnamese refugee houses... ...this wasn't organised by the Daily Mail. I asked the appear's editor why." MAIL EDITOR: "I think this is as far we go. We knew that Orphans project and (inaudible) ... and the newspaper has done it." REPORTER: "But you know that the Save the Children Fund and also the Red Cross have criticised this sort of airlift saying this.." EDITOR: "I know they have ...I think they're wrong. I think you will find if you look into it that as in all things you have different organisations with different views...They've criticised this airlift but they've been criticising Project Vietnam War for a long time." REPORTER: "It's also been suggested that..it's a publicity seeking venture on behalf of the Daily Mail." MAIL EDITOR: "Well, no. I think that's too glib.....Was it a publicity seeking venture? No., it wasn't." REPORTER: "But you have attracted a great deal of publicity." MAIL EDITOR: "I'd say we've attracted a great deal of criticism....I sought to bring out some children to save some lives and it's been a success. And this is what I've set out to do." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 15th April 1975 13:00
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- Location: ENGLAND, London, Heathrow
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- Country: United Kingdom
- Reuters ID: LVA42NDAC9L3JZ610MY32MB3KRIZ
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